Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-05-28

tumultuous feeling by the blast of bra
zen instruments. Drawing-rooms are
filled with all gracefulness of apparel,
with all
SWEETNESS OF SOUND,
With all splendor of manners; mir
rors are catching up and multiplying
the scene, until it seems as if in inf
mite corridors there were garlanded
groups advancing and %retreating.
The outdoor air rings with laughter,
and with the moving to and fro of
thousands on the great promenades.
The dashing span adrip with the foam
of the long country ride, rushes past
as you halt at the curb-stone.
Mirth, revelry, beauty, fashion, mag
niticence mingle in the great metropo-
Titan picture, until the thinking man
goes home 10 think more seriously, and
the praying man to pray more earnest
ly.
A beautiful and ove whelming thing
is the city in the first and second
watches of the night.
Bat the clock strikes twelve, and the
third watch has begun.
The thunder Of the city has rolled
out of the air. The slightest sounds
cut the night with such distinctness as
to attract your attention. The tink-
ling of the bell Of the street car in the
distance, and the baying of the dog.
The stamp of "a horse in the next street.
The slamming of
A SALOON DOOR
The hiccough of the drunkard. The
shrieks of the steam whistle five miles
away. O, how suggestive. my friends,
the third watch of the night!
There are honest men passing up
and down the street. Here is q city
missionary who has been carrying a
scuttle of coal to that poor family in
that dark place. Here is an under
taker going up the steps of a building
frem which there comes a bitter cry
which indicates that the destroying
angel has smitten the first-born. Here
is a minister of religion who has been
giving the sacrament to a
DYING CHRISTIAN.
mere IS "A physician passing along in
great haste, the messenger a few steps
ahead hurrying on to the household.
Nearly all the lights have gone out
in the dwellings, for it is the third
watch of the night. That light in the
window is the light Of the watcher, for
the medicines must be administered,
and the fever must be watched, and the
restless tossing of of the coverlid must
be resisted, and the ice must be kept
on the hot temples, and the prayer
must 60 up from hearts SOC to be
broken.
o, the third watch of the night!
What a stupendous thought-a whole
city at rest!
Weary arm preparing for to-mor-
rows tell. Hot brain being cooled off.
Rigid muscles relaxed. Excited nerves
soothed. The white hair of the octo.
genarian in thin drifts across the pill
low, fresh fall Of flakes on snow al
ready fallen. Childhood with its dim
pied hands thrown out on the pillow
and with every breath taking in a new
store of fun and frolic. Third watch
of the night! Gods slumberless eye
will look. Let II great wave of re-
freshing slumber roll over the heart OF
THE GREAT TOWN.
submerglng care, and anxiety, and
worriment, and pain.
Let the city sleep. But. my friends,
be not deceived. There will be thous.
ands tonight who will not sleep at all.
Go up hat dark alley, and be cautious
where you tread, lest you fall over the
PROSTATE form Of a drunkard lying on
his W doorstep. Look about you,
lest you feel the garroter's hug. Look
through the broken window pane, and
see what you can see. You say: Moth.
ing" Then listen. What is itP God
help us?" No footlights, but tragedy
ghastlier and mightier than Ristori OF
Edwin Booth ever enacted. Ne light,
no fire, no bread, no hope. ShiveriRg
in the cold, they have had no food for
t%wenty-four hours. You say: "Why
don't they begp" They do, but they
get nothing. You say: "Why don'i
they deliver themselves over to the
almshousep" All! you would not ask
that if you ever heard the
BITTER CRY
Of a man or a child when told he must
90 to the almshouse.
"O!," you say. ''they are vicious
poor, and, therefore, they do not de-
serve our sympathy" Are they
viciousp So much more need they
your pity. The Christian poor, God
helps them. Through their night there
wrinkles the round, merry star of hope,
and through the broken window pane
they see the crystals of heaven; but the
vicious poor, they are more to be
pitied. Their last light has gone out.
You excuse yourself from helping them
by saying they are SO bad, they brought
this trouble on themselves. | reply,
where 1 give ten prayers for the inno-
cent who are suffering l will give
twenty prayers for the guilty who are
suffering.
The fisherman, when he sees a vessel
dashing into the breakers, comes out
from his hut and wraps the
warmest f~lannels around those who